Posted on 12/07/2003 8:30:53 PM PST by Pikamax
Weapons arsenal exposed Saudis find explosives, arms stockpiles
Dave Montgomery Knight Ridder Newspapers
Sunday, December 07, 2003
The Saudi government's vigorous pursuit of al-Qaeda has exposed a nationwide terrorist arsenal that experts believe is being fortified by a steady supply of illegal arms pouring across the kingdom's borders.
While Saudi authorities are confident their six-month assault has al-Qaeda on the run, huge stockpiles of arms and explosives uncovered in the investigations show the terrorists have been able to assemble immense destructive force.
U.S. authorities, concerned about al-Qaeda's continuing ability to launch attacks in Saudi Arabia, toughened their security warning here Saturday, ordering diplomats to remain inside diplomatic quarters for all but essential duties.
There was no word on whether the new warning was in response to specific information. But the warning comes as Saudi authorities continue to turn up evidence of a sophisticated and heavily armed terrorist network.
Many of the weapons cross the border from Yemen, where Saudi authorities say they disrupt smuggling attempts on an hourly basis. A just-released report by the United Nations warns the region is "awash in weapons" readily available to terrorist groups.
Over the past six months, beginning with the first of two devastating terrorist attacks in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, authorities have uncovered surface-to-air missiles, belts of explosives for suicide bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, hundreds of Soviet-era rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Captured laptop computers and surveillance cameras show a flair for technology. Wigs, fake ID cards and spray-painting equipment for concealing suicide vehicles demonstrated the terrorists' adeptness at disguise. And the discovery of booby-traps in copies of the Qur'an, the Islamic holy book, signalled a willingness to strike at fellow Muslims.
Authorities have repeatedly found evidence al-Qaeda's scattered cells in Saudi Arabia may be armed with surface-to-air missiles. In August, Saudi officials reportedly confiscated a truck with SAM missiles near the port city of Jeddah. Authorities recently found a Soviet-made SA-7 missile when they arrested a suspect in connection with the Nov. 8 bombing of the Muhaya residential compound.
But then on the other hand chickens do have a way of coming home to roost.
The former Soviet designs are produced in so many places that unless the stuff is properly marked, (and much of it is not) you'll have a hard time figuring that out even with the stuff in your hands. Pakistan is possible, the "frontier provinces" of Pakistan, which are only loosly under government control, as you say North Korea, Egypt, Syria, and the breakway (from Moldova, itself a former Soviet Republic), Stalinist/Russian Mafia Run Transdniester Moldovan Republic.
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